Many of us are new to linux and irc chats so here is a overview to register your nickname and to participate in freenode project..

The Freenode network is home to many participants in free software and free content projects (such as wikis). The registration process is simple and only takes a few minutes. Here are the steps.

Steps

Join the freenode network. Open your favorite IRC client and type:

/server irc.freenode.net

Choose a user name or nick. This user name should consist only of the letters from A-Z, the numbers from 0-9 and certain symbols such as “_” and “-“. It may have a maximum of 16 characters.

Change your user name to the user name you have chosen. Suppose you chose the nickname “awesomenickname”. Type the following in the window titled freenode:

/nick awesomenickname

Register your nick or user name. Type the following command and replace “your_password” with a password that will be easy to remember, and replace “your_email_address” with your email address.

/msg nickserv register your_passwordyour_email_address

Verify your registration. After you register, you will not be able to identify to NickServ until you have verified your registration. To do this, check your email for an account verification code.

Group an alternate nickname with your main one. If you would like to register an alternate nickname, first switch to the alternate nickname that you want while you are identified as the main one, then group your nicks together with this command:

/msg nickserv group

Identify with Nickserv. Each time you connect, you should sign in, or “identify” yourself, using the following command:

/msg nickserv identify your_accountyour_password

Tips

You can send private messages. Simply do the following, replacing Nick with the nick or user name of the person you wish to contact privately and message with the message you want to start with:

/msg Nick message

Take care to follow this process in the freenode window, not directly in a channel. If you type all the commands correctly, nothing should be visible to others, but it’s very easy to type something else by mistake, and in so doing, you could expose your password.

Choose a nick between 5 and 8 characters long, that is pronouncable. This will make it easier to identify and avoid confusion. Choose your nick wisely. Remember that users will identify this name with your person.

User names will expire after 70 days of disuse. This is counted from the last time it was connected as identified with NickServ. If the nickname you want is not in use and you want it, you can contact somebody with freenode staff to unassign it for you. If you will not be able to use IRC for 70 days you can extend the time using the vacation command (/msg nickserv vacation). Vacation will be disabled automatically next time you identify to NickServ.

To check when a nick was last identified with NickServ, use /msg NickServ info Nick

The freenode staff have an option enabled to receive private messages from unregistered users so if you wish to request that a nick be freed, you do not have to register another.

To contact a member of the staff, use the command /stats p or /quote stats p if the first doesn’t work. Send them a private message using /query nick.

In case there is no available staff member in /stats p, use /who freenode/staff/* or join the channel #freenode using /join #freenode.

Avoid using user names that are brand names or famous people, to avoid conflicts.

If you don’t want your IP to be easily seen by the public, contact freenode staff and they can give you a generic “unaffiliated” user cloak, if you are not a member of a project.

If you want to hide your email address, use /msg nickserv set hidemail on. This is the default setting.

If you need to change your password, type /msg nickserv set password new_password. You will need to be logged in.